MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy Allows Companies to Manage Unplanned Spend Across the Organization While Leveraging Existing Inventory Levels and Supplier Contract Pricing

LAGUNA HILLS, CA, January 9, 2015 – MarginPoint, a leading provider of cloud-based indirect material management solutions, today announced the availability of MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy, an e-Commerce like experience to manage unplanned indirect materials spend. With this release, MarginPoint is the first indirect materials software company to deliver this unique enhanced spot buy functionality to manage, track, and control unplanned spend. The MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy module allows companies to effectively manage all spot buy and unplanned indirect material spend directly within the indirect material management application.  Advanced Spot Buy leverages the power of Microsoft Azure Search capability to immediately display Supplier Catalog items to the user in a familiar e-Commerce like shopping experience, allowing the user to perform keyword and faceted searches, and to search existing inventory prior to executing the spot buy. Supplier Catalog information is controlled by the organization to ensure adherence to existing Supplier contracts and pricing.

“Any company that has struggled with managing unplanned spend will find that MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy can play a significant role in eliminating unnecessary spending, optimizing inventory, and reducing their overall consumption of indirect materials.” Anand Rau, Chief Technology Officer, MarginPoint

Mark Hamilton, Director of Product Management for MarginPoint stated, “For many companies, much of their unplanned indirect material spend is transacted via an external system or the internet, with no visibility to existing inventory within the organization, or adherence to policies and controls established by the organization. Maintaining visibility and control of such “maverick” spend is a significant challenge to Procurement departments to balance the operational needs of the business while maintaining effective cost control measures.  As a result, there is a higher potential for unnecessary spend at a higher overall cost.  MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy addresses these issues head-on by providing companies with unparalleled control of their unplanned indirect material spend whilst maintaining adherence to existing supplier contracts and leveraging existing inventory.”

MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy Capabilities

As part of the MarginPoint 8.3 cloud-based solution suite, MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy extends the robust indirect material visibility and control capabilities of the MarginPoint 8 solution to the Spot Buy workflow.  MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy delivers the ability to perform all spot buy transactions within the application and provides real-time visibility to existing inventory across all locations within the organization.  Leveraging the power and scalability of the Microsoft Azure Search Framework, users have the ability to perform sub-second keyword searching, faceted filtering, and the ability to initiate requisitions for material across multiple suppliers simultaneously. In addition, the core capabilities of the MarginPoint 8 platform, including automated replenishment, advanced analytics and powerful integration capabilities, are extended to cover unplanned spend in existing storeroom or vending inventory installations. This enables customers to leverage a single platform and interface to manage all of their indirect materials.

Anand Rau, Chief Technology Officer for MarginPoint stated, “We spent several years developing what is today MarginPoint 8, our comprehensive cloud-based software solution that provides companies with unparalleled enterprise-wide visibility into their indirect materials spending, usage, and inventory.  MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy naturally extends these capabilities to unplanned or spot buy spend, enabling companies to harness the power of our solution for greater inventory accuracy and management of unplanned spend.  Any company that has struggled with managing unplanned spend will find that MarginPoint Advanced Spot Buy can play a significant role in eliminating unnecessary spending, optimizing inventory, and reducing their overall consumption of indirect materials.”

MarginPoint 8 Solution

MarginPoint 8 is a comprehensive indirect materials management software solution that enables industrial companies to streamline their indirect materials processes to drive down costs and improve profitability while maintaining or improving their operational service levels.  MarginPoint 8 provides visibility into all phases of indirect material management from sourcing and procurement through staging, usage and disposal.

For More Information

For more information on these new features, or to schedule a demo, contact your account representative or e-mail info@marginpoint.com.